Twiga Foods set to enter Cote d’Ivoire, DRC in expansion push

In May, Twiga Foods launched a Sh120 billion investment plan dubbed ‘Twiga Fresh’ to help supply informal retailers and urban consumers with lower cost, better quality and safe food.

Twiga Foods, a Kenyan business-to-business marketplace platform, is set to expand to Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The firm, which started in 2014, wants to use the two countries as launchpad into the Central and West African markets in the next two years.

The agriculture-based tech start-up has accelerated its expansion plans and has already set shop in Uganda this year.

Twiga Foods has raised billions of shillings including equity and loan deals from international investors such as the International Finance Corporation.

The startup bagged Sh5.56 billion last year from international investors to fund the East and West Africa expansion.

“We just started operations in Uganda, and we are also in the advanced stages of joining West Africa specifically in Cote d’Ivoire and the Democratic Republic of Congo,” said Twiga Foods East Africa’s Yebeltal Getachew during the launch of the Twiga Foods Last Mile Distribution Expansion Project, which will see the firm lease up to 300 Isuzu trucks to foster delivery of fresh food products.

The firm and its lessors took stock of 15 commercial trucks from Isuzu Kenya valued at Sh80 million, whose purchase has been financed by NCBA.

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Twiga Foods seeks to address the challenges faced by fresh fruits and vegetable producers, which include high input and transportation costs.

The tech firm is one of the startups seeking to disrupt food and the overall consumer supply chains, connecting producers to consumers and reducing the number of middlemen.
The platform has signed up more than 140,000 vendors, served by a fleet that travels 12,000km daily and handles more than 2 million kilos of products daily.

Chege Njuguna